Pat Miletich: ‘Dana has never told me anything that ended up being the truth’

It’s been quite some time since Pat Miletich and Dana White were friends and business associates. If one was to trace the divide between the two back to it’s origin they would find that the split was cemented with Miletich’s decision to become part of the International Fight League that has since gone under.

On last night’s episode of ESPN’s E:60, the founder of Miletich Fighting Systems made his current feelings about the UFC president quite clear.

“He’s done a lot of great things for the sport, without a doubt,” the UFC veteran was quoted as saying. “I just have seen the wreckage around him a lot.

“Dana has never told me anything that ended up being the truth, besides the fact that his intention was to crush other people’s lives and businesses.”

The recent statement made by Miletich shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone familiar with the past court case between the UFC and the IFL.

Below are some excerpts from Pat Miletich’s sworn statement given in the case held during 2006, according to public records.

8. In or around late Januray 2006, I recieved a call from Mr. White. During the conversation, Mr. White stated that he respected me both as a trainer and fighter, but then proceeded to express in a rather irate manner his feelings about the IFL and abruptly stated that “he was going to fucking crush these [the IFL] guys”. Mr. White further made it clear to me that he was livid about losing Keith Evans to the IFL.

9. During this conversation I expressed to Mr. White my opinion (based on numerous conversations with individuals in the MMA industry) that a lot of people involved in MMA industry didn’t very much care for him or the way Zuffa conducted its business and treated the individuals who fought at UFC events. In response, Mr. White stated that it “wasn’t his fucking job to be liked”. Mr. White further told me that he had spoken with the Fertittas (who own Zuffa), and they had given their “permission” to go after the IFL.

10. Mr. White further threatened me during the conversation, and implicitly the livelihoods of the fighters I train, stating that “when the dust settles, anyone associated with the IFL would not be associated with the UFC”. I took this for what it was — a threat to me and to my fighters who count on me to represent them and obtain opportunities to for them to fight in the MMA industry. Because of the virtual monopoly that Zuffa has in the MMA industry, Mr. White clearly knew that cutting me and my fighters off from the UFC would have a devastating economic impact.

11. Mr. White further told me during this conversation that he had been on the phone all day calling everyone he dealt with in the MMA industry and told me that, after speaking with all of them, none would be doing business with the IFL. My understanding from his comment was that he had made the same threats to everyone else he knew in the MMA industry that he had just made to me during our conversation. I attempted to tell Mr. White to calm down and tried to be rational with him. I expressed to Mr. White my opinion that the IFL was going to help the MMA industry and ultimately would increase the UFC’s presence throughout the world. I further attempted to dissuade Mr. White from doing anything irrational with respect to the IFL (i.e., the lawsuit) and told him that I felt going after the IFL for no reason would be very bad for the entire MMA industry. Clearly, Mr. White could care less what I thought.

12. Following my conversation with Mr. White, Ken Shamrock, another world-renowned MMA fighter, called me and told me that Mr. White had just “raised hell” with him about his being associated with the IFL. As I understand it, Mr. White had made similar threats to Mr. Shamrock whom I believe at the time had an agreement with the IFL to coach one of its teams. I further understand that Mr. White made the same or similar threats to Randy Couture, perhaps one of the most legendary MMA fighters in the world and a former UFC World Champion. I further understand that Mr. White called a current UFC World Champion, Matt Hughes, to inquire of him whether he had any involvement in the IFL.

13. Knowing Mr. White the way I do, I can honestly say that Zuffa’s intent is bringing this litigation has nothing to do with protecting any confidential information. Rather, I believe this litigation is about one thing and one thing only — stamping out legitimate and, indeed, healthy, competition.

Another nail in the coffin. Sooner of later the Fertitas are going to have to realize that Dana is hurting their business more than he is helping it and hire someone with not only personal and personnel skills but someone with proper business training.

Sure Dana has a vision, but as E:60 just asked, does he actually have the skills necessary to achieve that vision?

all that Dana is doing is solidifyiny the suppremecy of theUFC.that is what the Ferrtitas pay him for.the IFL was a joke anyways,especially when they tried a supposedly innovative fighting surface.yea I’m talking about the 6 sided ring that they stole from TNA wrestling. the UFC is the best , all the rest are beer leagues.

“Sooner of later the Fertitas are going to have to realize that Dana is hurting their business more than he is helping it…”

The plan to crush the IFL certainly seems to have worked out rather well.

Cory was right the other day in the Dana wont fight Atencio article, saying that its being ruthless bastards that kept the UFC alive and flourish in this economy: “One would have to be a downright cut-throat blood-thirsty tycoon to the job done in this day and age.” And Miletich’s testimony hints at Keith Evans going from the UFC to IFL as part of the big issue, but fails to mention the bigger problem was that he stole marketing documents for his new employer on his way out. Perhaps the cutthroat nature of MMA business isn’t just limited to the UFC.

One thing Dana told him that was the truth was that he would never work with the UFC ever again if he signed on with the IFL. And we haven’t seen him since.

He says he signed with the IFL to give his fighters’ opportunities, but all he did was effectively blackball them from the largest MMA org on the planet. This was a move Pat made for Pat, and to stick it to Dana, and now he wants to make it seem like he only had the thoughts of his fighters’ in mind now that the IFL has crashed and burned.

No surprise he has a bitter tale to tell. To use signing on with the IFL as leverage against dealing with the UFC was really stupid in hindsight.

I’ll tell you what Rich, if there is any super secret WAMMA plot against Dana White, I sure haven’t been made aware of it.

I actually really like Dana White, and always have to be completely honest. The news is the news, and any bashing going on in the article is definitely not coming from my end. There is not one point where I say anything negative about the man that I have a great deal of respect for.

Sadly, your conspiracy theory is nothing more than that, a conspiracy theory. Especially if you take into account that the bulk of what I report on has always been the UFC and I have never had a single bad thing to say abut the organization.

But……. Dana just doin business how big business gets done. nothing new, standard operating procedure. he bought a busted company for 2MM and now it’s worth 1.5 billion and poised for growth.

the IFC was based on teams. teams no casual fan would have heard of if the UFC did not include the team name in fighter intros at thier events. dana and the ufc made all the hot mma camps famous. and thats a fact. and that why dana doesn’t like em. and thats why camp affiliation is no longer included in ufc fighter info during events. those camps are riding on the ufc’s coattails. without the ufc, no casual fan would ever have heard of them.

Pat M is an MMA God, but he has only limited abilities as a big-time manager/agent. Can’t be great at everything.

The fact is that the IFL got sued for their business practices. It’s not a surprise Dana went after the them. Dana doesn’t have a problem with fighters, agents, and trainers making money and getting rich. It’s when their endeavors get in the way of Dana that he makes them pay. So maybe when he says not to do something, they should listen lol.

You build successful companies buy outperforming or eliminating your completion. As much competition as he has smashed we still have Strikeforce, Dream, and WVR as major promotions so he’ll never have all the MMA. He might have to tone down his public image a bit but this is a non-traditional sport in a new age so he might be able to be successful even though he doesn’t act like the NFL or NBA commissioner.

In business there are 2 schools of thought…. 1) work with your competition to make the industry better. 2) crush the competition and be the only one in the industry.

If you are at the top of the pyramid you can pick who you work with and who you crush. Dana is the big dog, like it or not. He is the face of MMA in America. ask Paris Hilton… BAD PRESS is better then NO PRESS

The excerpt in the post was clearly taken from a sworn statement filed in a court action. I don’t really know the subject matter except from the text of the article. Like any statement, it’s difficult to understand it completely without proper context–who filed it, and for what purpose? Probably it was filed in support of a motion in which one of the parties was asking the judge for some kind of order or relief. We don’t know what, or what happened.

Furthermore, not everything that’s in such a statement is relevant or even admissible in a court of law. For example, second hand statements from Ken Shamrock about his conversations with others including White wouldn’t be considered. The final paragraph–Miletich’s opinion about White’s reason for filing a lawsuit–is pure speculation and wouldn’t be considered, either.

So what was the 2006 lawsuit about, and how did it turn out? Did IFL win, or did UFC? Was it settled and dismissed? Does anybody know the terms of the settlement, or was if confidential? Lots of unanswered questions here.

Pat’s the man and a local hero. Everyone around here respects him, but I guarantee his “discussions” with Dana White were pretty damn heated from both sides. He’s every bit as passionate (and often, just as myopic) when it comes to the sport. The UFC goes totally evil on any competition that does anything Dana finds insulting, yet they’ve had nothing but good things to say about Strikeforce and even had Cung Le on the last UFC. Funny that no one talked about that at all. If the UFC is actually out to sabotage everyone else, why be so nice to Strikeforce who is obviously poised to be far bigger than the IFL or even EXC? (My theory is that they will be buying them out in the next couple years and will want Coker to work for them.) All I’m saying (since I know a good portion of you meatheads see the world in stark shades of black and white) is that the IFL wasn’t exactly the clean, honest, pure MMA org that so many have tried to paint it to be and they did some underhanded things of their own which was part of the reason the UFC had it out for them.

Strikeforce has always been very clear they’re happy with UFC’s table scraps. They have, since acquiring the carcass of EliteXC, stepped up their game a great deal to the point UFC has made rumblings about counter programming them. Affliction from day 1 was trying to create an adversarial relation to the UFC, overpaying the fighters and then claiming to be the savior of MMA since the UFC wasn’t paying Tim Sylvia $500,000 per fight (is that $25,000 per second?) and they were. Coker is thrifty. He’s not going to drive up prices of high-end talent, which is the real threat to the UFC’s bottom line.

I don’t think anyone blames Dana for going after EliteXC the way he did, they were obviously doing harm to the future growth of MMA by trying to build Kimbo Slice into the most recognizable star in the sport. The IFL was accused of stealing marketing research and trade secrets. The UFC filed the lawsuit first, the countersuit was based on the kinds of claims from this article, that the UFC was using their market position to bully out the weaker companies.